'That’s my voice': Friend of late Mississippi teen Nolan Wells speaks out on what he saw that day

A high school friend of Nolan Wells says that a viral video depicting a Fourth of July party at a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi does not depict an argument involving Wells, but actually shows him, he said to ABC News in a broadcast exclusive.

Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi college football player, died following the all-day party on Horn Island, off the coast of Ocean Springs, his hometown.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells' parents, said Friday that Wells is among a group of people standing on the island and is heard on the video, shot from a boat on the water, demanding his phone back.

However, Tracestin Shepherd, who said he was a high school friend of Wells, said on Sunday the voice heard on the video was his own. Wells is not in the video, he said.

"That's me yelling. ... there was no talk about a phone in that video," but instead, Shepherd said, he was telling others who were both restraining him, to let him off the boat so he could continue the fight.

Shepherd said the altercation was between him and another man, a stranger, who allegedly started a fight with him. He said that he and his group of friends, which included Wells, had been drinking alcohol since the late morning after multiple boats, all containing his friends, arrived on the island for an outing that had been planned to be "one last hurrah" before returning to either school or work after the holiday break.

About 300 people, many of them former high school classmates, were gathered near them on the island.

Later in the day, after being told the boat needed to return to shore due to an electrical issue. Shepherd said Wells said he wanted to stay behind because he met a girl and would return on another friend's boat. ABC News has made attempts to contact the girl. Authorities say they have been interviewing everyone they can who was with Wells, or may have spoken to him that day.

Wells' body was recovered on Monday in water off the island shore. Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter told ABC News he suspects Wells drowned, but is still investigating. An autopsy is being conducted by the state medical examiner. The results are pending, Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd Jr. said.

Shepherd said he and Wells were among a tight circle of friends who had known each other since their freshman year at Ocean Springs High School. Shepherd, 20, said Wells "was just somebody that you automatically just felt so comfortable to talk to" and they bonded through athletics. Their friend group was "very diverse" in race and ethnicity, and he said they all had one thing in common: admiration for Wells.

"Nobody would ever hurt Nolan in our friend group. We would die for him. We would do everything in our power for that guy. If he needed anything, we would do it," he said. "Nolan brought us all together."

Authorities stress their work to determine exactly what happened is still ongoing.

Shepherd declined to be interviewed on camera by ABC News because he said he fears for his safety. He said he and other friends have been besieged by death threats since Wells' body was found last Monday, from people accusing them of playing a role in his death.

He said he wanted to speak publicly because he wanted to share his version of what happened. Crump told "Good Morning America" last Thursday that a key piece of evidence was Wells' phone, which he said was retrieved from his friends -- something he said was suspicious.

Shepherd said it was very common for everyone to leave their phones in boats. He said few videos or photos exist from that day because "everybody was in the water" and not on their phones.

"All our friends are out there. Who are we communicating with? And we're in salt water. We're not in fresh water," he said.

Wells, he said, placed his phone in the boat of one of their friends. "When Nolan got in the water, he put his phone on the [boat] dash also with probably 15 other phones."

Ledbetter told ABC News that Crump has not yet turned over Wells' phone to his investigators.

Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath met with Wells' parents Wednesday morning. As the family conducts an independent investigation, Crump said the family and the DA agreed during Wednesday's "respectful meeting" to "have a mutual inspection" of Wells' phone, "with our experts and their experts."

Myers McIlrath routinely meets with families of deceased children, and told ABC News Tuesday that the meeting with the Wells family is meant to offer victim services and to help navigate the process of a death investigation.

Once the sheriff's department investigation into Wells' death is complete, the district attorney's office will present the case to a grand jury, which is standard procedure for most unnatural or suspicious deaths in the county.

Shepherd also said that a photo circulating social media and reshared by Ben Crump's official Instagram account, which supposedly shows Wells at a pool party in the early morning hours of July 5, was actually from June 27 at a different location.

Shepherd said he has spoken with investigators about what he witnessed on the island that day.

Shepherd, who is biracial, objected to what he saw as Crump framing Wells' death solely around race before the investigation bears out the full facts.

Amid the heated rhetoric surrounding the case, he and his friends have faced threats, Shepherd said.

"They're trying to spin a narrative that's not there," he said.

Shepherd said he wants "everybody just to relax and let everybody mourn the loss of Nolan. And let us remember him as the sweet guy he was and not something we're scared of because of the trauma we've had."

"If Ben Crump is doing his own investigation, let him do it," he said. "And then let the sheriff's office conclude with their investigation and figure out what the facts are on their end. Let us all just know the truth instead of jumping to conclusions about things."

"We all cared and loved Nolan, and nobody wanted to see Nolan die. Nobody wanted his life taken so short," he said. "He had everything going for him."

Through Crump, Wells' parents told ABC News that while they have never met Shepherd, they cannot discount his recollection of the day's events, but emphasized that the investigation is ongoing. Crump said that the family welcomes all accounts because they want to get to the truth.

Crump added on Wednesday that the independent investigators are "getting about 50 calls a day to 100 calls a day from people who were there on Horn Island, people who are familiar with individuals that were there."

ABC News' Sasha Pezenik, Deena Zaru Sabina Ghebremedhin and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

Editor's note: This story has been updated.